Vatican are gearing up for their new album, Sole Impulse, which is scheduled to arrive on November 15th via 1126 Records (pre-order here). We caught up with frontman Jonathan Whittle as he shared a complete track by track guide of the Savannah, GA metalcore outfit’s fierce new record.

01) “Sole Impulse” 

“The title track ‘Sole Impulse’ was written on the idea of embracing my own individuality and to build myself mentally by shifting the gears in my mind. ‘Sole’ being one and mine, and ‘impulse’ being the action of passion to gain what I seek in this life. It’s about stepping out of worldly traditions by leaving behind negative experiences that hinder my daily living. It branches from the Vedic idea between ‘samsara’ which is the cycle of death and rebirth into the material world and ‘moksha,’ the merge out of samsara. It is viewed as an exit that leads toward the idea of nirvana or heaven. It’s mainly focused on the thought of leaving this present worldly validation behind and being true to myself.”

02) “Blades In Sepia” 

“I wrote this song on who I thought my father was and learning I have a long lost half-brother. I’ve seen my father two to three times in my life, all when visiting him in a nursing home. I was at a young age and could vividly remember the machines and tubes connected to his body. He had a hemorrhagic stroke that left him paralyzed after trying to commit suicide by an overdose of pills. After the passing of my father, I was cleaning out our attic and found a folder with several written letters to him and a handful of photos. I’ve learned the letters were from his first son, Kenneth, at ages 7-9, sent from Japan, where my father was stationed in Okinawa in the late-60’s. As the letters read, it was apparent that he never wrote back and abandoned his family in Japan, before being stationed in South Korea and meeting my mother. The final photo that was sent, dated 1973, was a polaroid with a sepia color. It was of my father holding Kenneth, sitting in tall blades of grass. Still, to this day, I’ve been trying to find Kenneth to possibly connect but no luck.”

03) “Thirty-One Staples” 

“This song is about revisiting my childhood home through a lucid dream and reliving an event which put me in the hospital for two months. I was left with 31 staples in my head and had to relearn all motor skills. It’s about diving back into your mind where the worst moments of your life happened. The doctor told me that I was extremely lucky to have survived. The injury I had sustained was 12mm away from permanent brain damage. Knowing that alone makes me grateful and cherish the things I have in my life today.”

04) “Beneath One” 

“The basic overlay of this song is about shedding my old skin, then looking back to see an apparition of my old self. It was written after lying on my bathroom floor, spiraled out on suicidal thoughts. As I got up, I looked at the ground and envisioned my body still there, lying emotionless. I was succumbing to the thought of being numb and asking myself, ‘am I allowed to feel again?’. At the time in my room, I had a poster with a saying on it ‘the sky’s the limit.’ The sun depicted on it was at the 1 o’clock counter. In a spiritual sense, the sun is one, and I viewed my physical self beneath the sun, knowing every morning, the sun will rise, regardless of how I felt or my actions. From this thought, I gave myself the last-ditch effort for my spiritual body to either loathe at zero as a carcass or mentally rise above my physical self to gain ambition and take the initiative to better myself. So, my spiritual body is beneath one but above self.”

5) “Color My Grave Mine” 

“This song is about those who waste their lives away, waiting for the right moment to act upon their ambitions because they are fearful of what others think. Each mood or aura has its own color, on the psychological color spectrum. Most people are quick to judge one another by their cover or style, so this is my statement saying I have accepted myself, for myself, regardless of anyone’s input.”

06) “Cognition Rendered Dead” 

“The whole basis behind this song is about psychosis and searching for a type of salvation after losing a loved one. It started off in a dream, where I was in a garden of Eden, heaven-like place. Standing from afar was the love of my life, whoever she may be. But in this dream, the only way I had her attention, was if I were to pick a flower from the garden and hand it to her. I could only keep her attention briefly. Each time I’ve picked another one, the world became more and more distorted, as I was giving so much of what was beautiful to me. After all the flowers were picked, the garden became ash, and then the world began disintegrating. I was left with the final seconds of my body sprinting in place with my eyes fixated on a silhouette ascending away from me before I woke up.”

07) “Assemblage” 

“Assemblage is about viewing the body as a temple and as a machine. Mechanically, for a hard drive to optimize its highest performance, it takes the act of defragmentation to break down files to create more memory and to run more efficiently. In the same sense, given our human condition, we’re able to create new energy towards being mindful by decompressing and meditating the mind. With this concept, this song was written about a time where I failed to look inward and be self-reflective on a specific dilemma. It’s also about questioning what would another person do in a similar situation. I saw with the lack of action I took to fix the problems, only created bigger mental roadblocks; turning my temple into a cage. There is a quote by Mark Twain that starts off, ‘dance like nobody’s watching; love like you’ve never been hurt.’ With that quote in mind, it comes down to that question: If anybody living in a state where they were too far past the ‘hurt,’ would they save themselves or let go? Hence the lyrics, ‘die like everybody’s watching; outside the cage.’”

08) “Cyanide Divinity” 

“This song is about finding myself in a psychotic rage with the thought of God, faith, Christianity, and its flaw in general. As a piece of art/imagery, this song was written and depicted in my head as Michelangelo’s painting ‘The Creation of Adam.’ The lyrics could be viewed as a conversation on the destruction of humanity. Adam and God would reach for one another again, and as they connect, the world comes to an end, and everything dies.”

09) “Ex Nihilo” 

“This song is about crushing my fears and exceeding my mental plateau. It’s about manifesting my own destiny by stimulating a sense of urgency to end the negative outlook in my life. An outlook where fear is a parasite, eating inside, needing to be cut out. Ex Nihilo means ‘out of nothing’ in Latin. Metaphorically speaking, with destiny coinciding with the law of attraction, we create patterns in a way to conquer what we have a vision for, with less than 40% brainpower of our fullest potential. Similarly, on the other hand, with what we can attract and with ‘fear’ cut out, we’re able to destroy anything that stands in our way mentally and spiritually, out of nothing, like a snap of the finger, with 0% brainpower.”

10) “Your Prison Within” 

“I wrote this song about breaking a habit. It’s about not hiding the filth and ugliness we all have inside. People front what they love like a fake mask to please others when sometimes the darkest and blackest secrets are the ones worth wearing on their sleeves.”

11) “Xero Line Crisis” 

“This song touches on past experiences with having to search within myself to remain patient/compassionate, with someone close who was struggling to overcome drug abuse and addiction. It’s also about who that person was turning into, how bitter I became through the process, and how resentful I may have acted in the past. However, I never dismissed them due to the amount of love I’ve held for them.”